Monthly Archives: April 2014

Technicians

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Overcast/Cloudy. Moderate West wind all day.

Erik brought out two techs from Environment Canada to service the weather station at the top of the tower. They realized a wiring error in their system after we had one of the main inverters burnout several weeks ago. They also fixed the old-school barograph I’ve had sitting broken in the kitchen since I found it in a closet on my last shift. This model of barograph (literally a barometer with a drum+graph used to track the tendency of atmospheric pressure) was standard issue for weather stations from Environment Canada for many years. The unit out here is from 1961, with an upgraded clock from 1977. I recently found a spare clock and drum for it, now the only things missing are graph paper for the drum and a new ink tip.

Ric the electrician also came out to start troubleshooting the generator issue. After some scrounging I found several manuals for components of the energy system. So far he has found a broken voltage controller that might be the culprit. We are now waiting on the part to see if this is the only problem.

A group of Pearson College visitors (Dave Skilling + 3) also came out for a brief tour and visit of the Reserve.

6 super loud blasts through out the day from DND that left the techs a little startled since the buildings shake when a big one goes off.

Gale

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Clear skies all day. Super calm, glassy morning. Blowing West 40+ by mid-afternoon. It always pays to do your chores when the weather is nice.

3 tour boats.

People keep telling me that sometime last week there was a pod of Orcas in the reserve harassing the seals. I must have been looking in the opposite direction.

There was a boat fishing within the reserve. They did not respond to radio calls, or to me standing on the jetty blowing a whistle and waving my arms. I reported them to the illegal fishing hotline.

-Set up hoses from low-pressure pump on the desal unit to the PV panels so I can use water from the cistern to keep panels clean
-Fixed some loose wiring on the Whaler

Calm evening

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Clear skies. North-East wind in the morning, glassy calm by evening. Awesome sunset.

There’s been 3 different Elephant seals on/near the jetty the past couple days. One had a weird/blind left eye, and one had a green tag that I couldn’t read because it was in the water. Still lots of Eagles and Pigeon Guillemots. Keith found a new goose nest.

The generator is still down, and will continue to be so until we can get ahold of a technician. The solar panels and battery bank continue to provide sufficient energy.

My kayak friends, Keith and Jacob, left on the slack tide this morning.
Off station from from 1330 to 1600 on a grocery run

Generator

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Clear skies, calm wind.

The generator is not working. Yesterday it shutdown a moment after starting up. The shutdown switch says it was because of “hi/low volts”. Chris suspects it is the voltage controller on the generator. The battery bank,charge controllers, and inverters are all running fine. I am glad that it has been sunny these past few days because there is enough light to charge the battery bank for basic operations. All extraneous power/phantom draws have been shutdown and unplugged. It is also a reminder to always keep the water tank topped up (which I do) since the desalinator needs the generator to run. The mission now is to keep the solar panels nice and clean throughout the day.

Slack tide kayak visit from two of my friends.
Chris brought out this year’s Coutts lecturer Massimiliano Gioni +a handful of students +a guest and 2 kids

Animal Census

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Mostly clear skies. Strong West wind all day.

The flag was set at half-mast today to mark the national day of remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.  According to the Canadian War Museum, the capture of Vimy was more than just an important battlefield victory, it became a symbol for the sacrifice of the young Dominion. Brigadier-General A.E. Ross declared after the war, “in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.”

 

Animal Census

Steller Sea lion: 41
California Sea lion: 8
Harbour Seal: 153
Elephant Seal: 16!
Gulls: 301
Canada Geese: 20
Black Turnstone: 6
Harlequin Duck: 4
Oystercatcher: 8

Continue reading →

Introduced Ornamentals

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Light North wind this morning. Strong Westerlies this afternoon. Rain with periods of sun.

1 tour boat

This morning was the first time this Spring that there have been a few California Sea lions resting on the end of the jetty.

With Spring mostly here, many of the introduced ornamental plants are flowering. This isn’t a complete plant inventory, just a selection of plants that I noticed on my photo walk. The terrestrial plants at Race Rocks are dominated by introduced and invasive species. This is something that occurs at most light stations. There is a long history of trying to make the light stations look “like home”; Which is usually done by introducing hardy ornamental plants that can survive (although only a few thrive) on remote, salt and wind blasted light stations. Continue reading →

Halibut fishing

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Clear skies. Light North to North-East winds most of the day. Moderate Westerly this evening. Environment Canada beat out NOAA for the correct weather forecast today.

2 tour boats

For the past few days there have been a few recreational fisherman anchored just outside of the reserve boundaries fishing for halibut. You can tell they are fishing for halibut because they are anchored, usually with a scotsman buoy on the chain just off the bow; If they were after salmon they would be trolling. These fisherman are capitalizing on an effect called “spillover” where the high fish populations from a reserve act as a source to seed nearby areas. This effect is recognized as one of the many, valuable benefits protected areas in the marine environment.  The recreational halibut fishery opened on February 1st and will remain open until further notice from DFO. The rules this year are as follows:

  • Maximum length is 126 cm.
  • The daily limit is 1.
  • The possession limit is 2, only one of which may be greater than 83cm in length.
  • The annual limit is 6 halibut per licence holder.
  • For each halibut retained by the licence holder, the date of capture, the Fisheries Management Area from which it was caught and its length shall be immediately recorded in ink on the 2013-2014 Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licence.

  • Area 121 aka Swiftsure Bank is a Closed Area to all finfish capture

Continue reading →

Power Restrictions

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Cloudy with scattered showers. Strong West wind in the evening.

4 tour boats

I spent the day with Aileen and her advisee group. Because there were 10 students (with all of their associated electronic equipment) the breaker on the inverter to the science house was tripped last night which resulted in a total electrical shut-down of the Science house where everyone was staying.  Our system and these old houses are just not meant for that much of a power draw. Because of that little power outage, the morning was spent showing them about the energy and resource systems on Race Rocks, with a strong emphasis on living within reasonable means, especially when in a remote place like this. My solution to the excessive use of power was to only allow them to use 2 plugs in the house to charge computers and phones. I think (hope) it turned into an unexpected team building exercise where they had to charge things minimally and barter for plug-time. Either way, it meant that we didn’t have any more power issues for the rest of their stay and it is something that I will implement for future groups.

I counted 13 Elephant seals on Middle rock. They return to Race Rocks for a few months in Spring to moult. Although they look absolutely terrible when they are moulting, it is a natural process that they undergo every year.